Abstract
The combined effect of thermal fluctuations and substrate roughness replication in smectic liquid-crystalline films on a substrate is described. For that purpose a theory is developed which is an extension of existing continuum models. Both thermal fluctuations and roughness replication can be quantified in terms of the surface tension and the elastic constants for compression and bending of the smectic material. Model calculations show the effect of the various parameters. It is shown that the growth of roughness due to thermal fluctuations largely cancels the diminishment due to roughness replication. This explains why previous x-ray scattering measurements could be satisfactorily described in terms of fractal correlation functions.
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